The 10th Anniversary of Lew Mongelluzzo's Liberty Bell Games gets underway at 5:00 pm today at the beautiful -- that's no hyperbole -- Red Bank Armory in Red Bank, NJ, on the northern tip of the Jersey Shore, where the Sandy Hook peninsula crooks a finger into New York's outer harbor.

The players -- '01s, '02s, '03s --- include a number of the top kids at their age groups and offer up some nice prospects for prep, junior and NCAA teams. There's always a group of kids here who go on to greater glory, e.g. Johnny Gaudreau, a '93 from the Garden State who went on to BC and is now an NHL star with the Calgary Flames.

A number of coaches from top prep schools will be manning the benches: Kurt Colling and Will Leedy (Salisbury), Keith Dupee (Lawrenceville), Vinnie Sorriento (Millbrook), Brooks McQuade (Tilton), and Rob Ferraris (Trinity-Pawling).

Update:A couple of last-minute changes: '01 RD James Cerepak is replacing Bryson Russell on Team Freedom, and will wear uniform #15. Also, '01 F Rory Maurer is replacing Paul Messina on Team Independence. He will wear #19.

Wed. 5/30/18

42 Mass Players Bound for USA Hockey Camps

Below are the 42 Massachusetts players who have been named to represent the Commonwealth at this summer's USA Hockey Player Development Camps in Amherst, NY.

Congratulations to all. There are nearly 7 million people living in Massachusetts, and not all are hockey players. Still, it's no small feat to run the gauntlet through the initial camps, to the Final 40, and then to this.

The 2018 Mass Hockey CCM High Performance Festival Final 40 is on tap for this weekend, with the first games starting at 3:00 pm Saturday May 19th at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Mass. The final games are Sunday evening.

After the weekend, players will be chosen to attend the USA Hockey Player Development Camps in Buffalo in June and July. The age groups are '01 (Select 17), '02 (Select 16), and '03 (Select 15).

NHL Central Scouting released its final rankings for the 2018 NHL Draft... a couple of weeks ago. (Sorry, we've had to work on some other things since the end of the prep season, plus take a break from the rinks!).

Among North American Skaters, Andrei Svechnikov, a 6'2" Russian RW playing for the Barrie Colts (OHL) is #1 on the list. The top American is 6'3" Boston University LW Brady Tkachuk, who is #2.

The top-ranked American goalie is 6'4" Keegan Karki, a Sartell, Minn. native and North Dakota recruit playing for Muskegon (USHL).

The top-ranked prep player on Central's list is 5'11" Thayer center and Providence recruit Jay O'Brien (Round 2, #32 overall). This season, O'Brien was the USHR Player of the Year and Forward of the Year for the second consecutive season.

The second highest-ranked prep player is 5'11" Kimball Union LD Jordan Harris (Round 2, #44 overall). Harris, a Northeastern recruit, was USHR's Defenseman of the Year this season.

No goalies from the prep ranks were ranked -- not even Rivers' 6'2" Aidan Porter, a Princeton recruit who led the prep ranks this season with a .951 save percentage. Porter, who was USHR's Prep Goaltender of the Year, is, as a '99, draft-eligible for the second time. Ditto for NMH's 6'5" backstop Eric Green, a UMass-Lowell recruit who also had an outstanding season.

This year's draft will be held June 22-23 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Buffalo has the top pick, followed by Carolina and Montreal.